Australia’s 5B: Onwards To Automation

It may not look like much, but the fixing of this first bolt was a big moment for Australian “solar farm in a box” pioneer 5B.

5B’s Maverick system is a modular, pre-fabricated and pre-configured solar panel and racking solution including concrete ballast shipped in blocks each containing up to 90 x 540-550W solar panels. These blocks are then unfolded on-site – and at a rapid clip.

Last year the company claimed a “solar speed record”, deploying twenty-two Mavericks in a single day with two crews of ten people. 1.1MW of solar power capacity was deployed in just one day.

Since launching in 2017, 5B’s Maverick solution has attracted a lot of attention and has been chosen for a number of significant projects; including recently being selected for use in a hybrid power station for a major lithium mining project in Western Australia. Starting in June this year, 342 5B Maverick arrays will be rolled out (err, unfolded) at the Kathleen Valley site to create a 16MWp solar farm.

Another major project we’ve mentioned previously here on SQ – SA Water’s Happy Valley water treatment plant, which is comprised of around 30,000 solar panels.

Back in 2019, 5B was selected as Sun Cable’s preferred technology on the development of the solar farm aspect of the massive (and currently rather troubled) Australia-Singapore Power Link project; should that go ahead.

5B’s Need For (Even More) Speed

The company is continuing to strive towards even faster deployment, but also to speed things up while slashing costs at the production end as well.

In January last year, 5B scored funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to do so. $14 million in ARENA funding is supporting a $33.4 million project involving development of a high volume, scalable and predominantly automated manufacturing, assembly and deployment process line for Maverick.

At the deployment end of things, 5B is also working on a GPS Guided Deployment (GGD) field robotic system to automate the 5B Maverick deployment process.

First Bolt “An Epic Moment”

Earlier this week, the foundation bolt of 5B’s Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Line went in at the company’s facility in Sydney – described by 5B as the robotic equivalent of ‘turning the first sod’.

5B says once fully operational, the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Line is expected to produce a 50-70 kilowatt solar array every 30 minutes with minimal labour.

“It is a very big deal in the industry. There will be a million incremental steps before we reach this end point,” says the company. “The task should not be underestimated, both in terms of its impact on the sector and how hard it is to achieve.”

5B stated the moment represented a step change not just in the company’s evolution, but for the whole solar industry.

“Hopefully, 50 years from now, this moment will be logged alongside Henry Ford’s mass manufacturing of cars, or Apple’s iPhone for standardising, simplifying, accelerating, and packing more value into the system itself.”

Even if it isn’t or things don’t quite pan out as intended, it’s always great seeing Australian companies thinking big and playing an important role in decarbonising energy systems through cheap, clean renewable electricity. More (solar) power to 5B!